NL Refuses to Hand Suspect Over to US

By klim on July 24, 2013 - 10:14

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A Dutch court obstructed the extradition of a Dutch-Pakistani al-Qaeda suspect to the United States since it is uncertain if US authorities were involved in tormenting him following his arrest in 2010.

26-year-old Sabir Khan was arrested on September 23, 2010 in a raid in Quetta, Pakistan and was sent to the Netherlands in April 2011.

On Tuesday, The Hague Court of Appeal gave a verdict “that suspect Sabir [Khan] cannot be extradited to the United States,” because there are still unanswered questions on Khan's accusations of torture during his time in a Pakistani jail.

“There are circumstances which raise questions about the role played by the United States in Sabir K.'s arrest in Pakistan,” the court said.

The court also emphasized that is against the law to transfer him to the US with no evidence that American authorities did not take part in his supposed torture.

Khan claimed the US had tortured him in a Pakistani prison. As a result, he says, he became depressed and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).